TAHITI DELAYED

Evening Star, Issue 15908, 14 September 1915, Page 5

TAHITI DELAYED

■ • - , —; »• , ' TROUBLE WITH THE CREW. [PgR USTTED PBSSS ASSOCIATION.] ' WELLINGTON, September 13. It appears, that daring the voyage the .engineers took one fireman out "of each I watch for work in. the engine room, leav--1 intr five mw instead of six in the stoke.nold. The owners claim that they were carrying three tneu" in excess of the reqnirements of the New Zealand law, while tha men contend that the New' Zealand law applies only to vessels trading on tho . Now Zealand coast and in the intercolonial run; They say this is borne out by the fact that when the Waitomo was put into the Eastern tr»de three extra men were employed, snd that- the same remark ; - applied to'the Tahiti when she used to ,5 run to San Francisco.' The ship's officers claim that the vessel was travelling only 11 knots- an hour against 14 under ordinary trading conditions, and that the pre- ' sent scale of staffing the stokehold is therefore sufficient. In the meantime the : old s'rew. has signed off, and no men are offering to replace them, though it is hoped the stokehold will be manned to-morrow. September 14. • So far no crew has been obtained for the Tahiti, which is still (2.30 p.m.) lying at tho Glasgow wharf. Many of the returned soldiers have left for" the Bonth by the ferry steamer. DUNEDIN ME-3T COMING ON THE WARRIMOO. [From Our Special Reporter.] WELLINGTON, September 14. There is much comment in Wellington regarding the unfortunate hold-up of the Tahiti, owing, it is officially stated, to the inability to obtain a crew. Many pertinent questions are being asked as to Whether the vessel is an Imperial transport or merely a ship chartered for the /trip. It is considered that if the Tahiti is under Imperial control (here it may be mentioned she does not fly the company's house flag) the authorities should have taken action long ere this to secure a crew to take the vessel to southern ports. The regrettable feature of the situation is that there are still on hoard a number of wounded men who, deserve genuine sympathy and considerate treatment. Meanwhile they appear to be at the mercy of apathetic or impotent authorities, and at the will of seafaring men. It is stated officially that the crew were quite within their legal rights in leaving the ship at" Wellington, but the public seek.to know ■ why a vessel, apparently under Imperial control, should be subjected to such industrial conditions. A remarkable, almost ironical, feature of the situation is that most of the soldiers who were not wounded at all been able to get home. The Government have at last arranged to send the Dunedin men south bv the Warrimoo to-day, and the others leave by the ordinary ferry steamer to-night. _ INTERVIEW AVITH MB BELCHER. ; THE CREWS POSITION. A representative of the 'Star' waited an Mr W. Belcher, secretary of the Dun- . ;din branch of the Seamen's" Union to-dav in quest of information relative to the Ta- , hifci trouble. Mr Belcher said there -appears to be a. good deal of erroneous misapprehension in the mind of the public .as to the attitude which has been assumed by tho crew of the Tahiti in leaving the vessel at Wellington. So far as is known, the crew had no desire to put anyone to inconvenience ■or to cause amy alarm, and what has been done has not been attempted with any desire* of arousing recriminations so far as the seafarer is concerned. The contract these men entered into on leaving New Zealand was to bring the , ship back to Wellington, where they had the legal right to claim their discharge and cjiut tho- ship. This has been done strictly m accordance -with law and contract,, and if the crew felt disposed to leave the vessel at Wellington they were perfectly within their legal and' moral rights in doing so. ; _ With ..the slate of the-labor i market as it is at the present time, when there is undoubtedly a--scarcity of seamen and firemen, it may be found a difficult matter to man a vessel like the.Tahiti, carrying a large crew,* but that is no fault of the Seamen's Union. As. a matter of fact, the general secretary for the* Seamen's Union in Wellington, Mr W. T. i Young, has been on board the vessel and unsuccessfully attempted to induce the crew to take her on to Port Chalmers. We all realise that at times like these men must make sacrifices, especially just now, and it is my Impression that'if the firemen had been worked as they should have been there would have been/io difficulty in persuading them to trundle the snip along to Port Chalmers. _ The main trouble is this: The Tahiti is carrying a certain number of men in her stokehold, which is admitted to be in excess of the number required by the Shipping and Seamen's Act, and "what has been done is this: Taking advantage W the fact that' the vessel was currying' a few men over her complement, the engineers have taken men away from the itokehold work, or what is known as the room, and put them in the engine room cleaning, painting, and ecounn<*. This ha« given rise to a deal of dissatisfaction, and it is largely attributable to the ~ flungriness for work by the engineers in the engine room that the present trouble has occurred. Any person who knows a. - vessels stokehold is perfectly well aware that there are not more cats than can ■catch mice put in a, vessel's stokehold • an d most reprehensible that under the conditions the vessel was- working—pa«sinc • through the hottest corners on earth—that men should have been taken from the fire department into the engine room. There is no excuse for this procedure, because tne vessel.is maimed, in the engine room by seven engineers, with the addition of two greaeers an watch with the engineer* 1 hat should surely be sufficient to keep the engine rami in good order, without drawing upon the other department, where the juice has to be generated for pushing the machinery along. It is extremelv unfortunate, and no one deplores more than myself the delay now being experienced by the southern contingent of the wounded; but I again wish to emphasise the fact that the crew of tha Tahiti are strictly within their legal rights in actinias they have done, and it is for the ship* owner, if he can maomge it, to dig up the necessary crevv to bring the vessel to her final destination.

Btwl by the general public, and ft is only a fair thing that the men's side of the ouestaon should be made dear, and that }L C ° f know «« sea-' ■Rjeji-rwhicih includes firemen-lava their ?£' te ] tI,S T ma as othei ' classes of theaie.merely standing on these rights, and mean to maintain them. Hi* Worship fte Mayor (Mr J. J. Clark) received advice this moraine from t,v«j Jington that fl» .IWin Ln"ml£ the wounded and invalided soldiei* on The Tahiti are divided into the follow™ classes:—Hospital cases 15, ontna?W« (home treatment) 32. There .stretcher cases." The time of the £! rival of tho men in Ihmedin. is uncertain It was proposed to welcome the men returned in tho Tahiti at a c?vfc reception at the Town Hall to-m orrow but owing to the uncertainty that nW taS ***** t0 At a special meetimj of' the Ofa-o Soldiers and Dependents' Welfare Coinpnt tee held yesterday -afti-Knoon, the .Mayer presiding, it was stated thn*. the Dtago Motor Club -nwe making full arjang«m«mta for a supplv of cars to convey the eoldiorp returning by the Tahiti to their homes. Referring to the enlistment of skilled craftsmen, ' Engmeering > says t j iafc the lighting line ."has too large a proportion of the mentality of the nation, and the place of many of our youths of high training should be taken bv others (squally fitted from the -physical standpoint.